Beaches And Pools Draw Crowds

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31269, 16 January 1967, Page 14

Beaches And Pools Draw Crowds

Thousands of people made a belated dash to city beaches and swimming pools yesterday in a last-minute bid to catch some holiday sunshine and a sun tan.

Most people will return to work today after sitting out one of the wettest, dullest, and coldest Christmas holiday periods in years. The widespread feeling is that the weather will now be good, with rain only at weekends.

Hundreds poured onto the beaches as soon as the sun broke through yesterday morning. When swimming pools opened early in the afternoon crowds were waiting to get into the water. At Jellie Park pool 3342 bathers had passed through the turnstiles by closing time at 6.30 p.m. At the Centennial pool more than 1000 bathed between 1 p.m. and closing time at 4.45 p.m. The Jellie Park crowd was one of the biggest of the season, and the number at the Centennial pool was the biggest since Christmas. At New Brighton about 1000 people were in the water at 3 p.m., and surf patrolmen said this was the biggest crowd of the season. Hundreds stayed on the beach even after

the fog rolled in off the sea. At North Beach and Sumner there were -200 in the water and hundreds more on the beach. At Waimairi and Taylor’s Mistake there were up to 150 in the water. The surf generally was choppy for most of the day, but there were no incidents at any of the beaches.